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Their reasons are obvious. They don’t want to move, and they also claim the appraisals SpaceX used to set its price, which the company claims is three times the value of the homes, are too low.

Although the Hawthorne, Calif.-based rocket company, in a letter dated Sept. 12 and sent via FedEx, is offering the Heatons three times the appraised value of their home, they say the offer isn’t close to what they’d need to sell. The appraisal conducted by SpaceX is several thousand dollars less than an appraisal the Heatons got through their bank five years ago, Terry said.

“I sent them an email the day after we got this letter, not being sarcastic or anything else,” he said. “I just told them the facts, that (their) appraisal is extremely low.”

If they obtained an appraisal five years ago that is less than SpaceX’s now, than SpaceX is certainly not offering them three times the value of their home.

SpaceX does not have the right to condemn these properties, as does the government. It must reach an equable deal with the landowners. In the case of the Heatons and several others, it sounds like this is going to take a lot of money. They want enough so that they can buy something comparable elsewhere.

Calvin Dodge: I’m sorry, but if I was the landowner here I would fight hard against SpaceX if it tried to use the Transportation Department’s eminent domain authority. This is not a transportation project, and to make believe it is to my mind is a downright lie. DOT’s authority has to do with obtaining right of ways for installing roads from two points in Texas. SpaceX is launching rockets into space.

So far SpaceX has done nothing to suggest they are trying to use this law for their benefit. Good for them, so far. They need to offer fair prices to these landowners, which in this case is probably far more than the basic appraisal price, for it to be fair.

Elon now has deep pockets…. If he/SpaceX has any sense they will pay what needs to be paid to the remaining residents, get them to sign a non disclosure agreement, so as not to annoy the folks who took the lower offers..and move on.
Nothing but capitalism in action… And I have nothing bad to say about it.
Everything has a price…. It’s just if the buyer is prepared to pay the price the seller demands.

It would seem to me that in comparison to the cost of getting to Mars this charge is a mere pittance. Hopefully SpaceX will negotiate in good faith with its eye on the overall prize and not ruin is reputation over this situation.

I have always felt that this type of situation was a ticking time bomb since the first announcement that SpaceX was going to create a major launch center at Bolsa Chica. I am really surprised that this issue has not been tackled already (speaking for ignorance of all the facts, of course).

It seems to me that the offer’s short time limit was a mistake. It gives little time to ponder the consequences of selling or time to find some form of similar housing, which would be a factor in the decision to sell. The similar housing problem is what makes the Heaton couple complain most.

The time limit also has that “or else” sense to it, which is why so many of us have the idea that SpaceX’s agent may attempt an eminent domain seizure. ‘Sell to us this month, or it will be no more Mr. Nice Guy. (Mwahaha!)’

According to item 6 of the landowners’ rights listed in Calvin Dodge’s link, “The entity proposing to take your property must make a bona fide [good faith] offer to buy the property before it files a lawsuit to condemn the property“. SpaceX’s agent has now done this.

Technically this is a transportation project, but as Robert notes it is not the type of transportation that was intended by Texas’ eminent domain law. According to Calvin Dodge’s link, the law intends land seizure to be used for rights of way for highways, not safety zones for rocket launches. “The commission may acquire an interest in real property, a property right, or a material under Section 203.051 only if the commission determines that the acquisition is necessary or convenient to a state highway to be constructed, reconstructed, maintained, widened, straightened, or extended.”

However, adding to our expectation that eminent domain is imminent is the Kelo v. City of New London ruling by the Supreme Court, which allows governments to seize land for non-public use, so long as the government profits from the deal. Did the Supreme Court think that this benefit to the government makes it seem like public use? Whatever they were smoking, they need to go to rehab.

Chris–
You are too kind!
Didn’t have any time to do a proper search for exactly what I wanted, and now I can’t find it! (Increasingly with YouTube– I’m not able to readily locate material I know exists, they are obviously manipulating their algorithm.)
–there should be something inside this one—

Peterson Family Update –
September 19, 2019https://youtu.be/SPwaixIuTrU
8:42
In brief, (earlier in the Spring) wife Tammy was Dx’ed with terminal kidney cancer and had one removed, followed by complications which almost killed her. The Dr. was stressed outa-his-mind and was prescribed Klonopin for anxiety by his Doc. He then checked himself into rehab when he started having nasty side FX’s from stopping the Klonopin (a fairly potent benzodiazepine).

SpaceX has no inherent right to acquire this land, they can try to buy it, but nobody has to sell.
In Reality: SpaceX will enlist the government to take it. They will start at the local level, then move/outward, up as needed. (“Health & safety powers” are always good.)
–For what exactly is this facility licensed and by what level of government? Therein lies the pesky Administrative Law aspects of all this.

40 years ago, GM utilized eminent domain and seized the village of Hamtramck to build an assembly plant.
=thousand of citizens, 100’s of businesses, 6 Churches, and one Hospital all went POOF….for an assembly plant that the government-motor company closed.

“Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America’s quest for the moon… Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America’s greatest human triumphs.”
–San Antonio Express-News

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